Well since this is my first article I figured I should write an introduction.  My real name is Thomas Solway, though I use the nick Ruwon on the net.  One day I might even tackle the immense challenge of proving that Ruwon belongs in any tournament ready ST deck :-).  I hail from Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada.  Spruce Grove is a Suburb of Edmonton.  I am going to try and write an article or two per month to WNOHGB but if I miss one here or there please don’t lynch me :-).  Anyway, on to the strategy.

Defeating the Hero Of the Empire

Hero of the Empire Decks or HOTE decks have become quite popular of late.  This is because HOTE in combination with cards such as 62nd rule and Destroy Radioactive Garbage Scow, or DRGS, can make each of the opponent's missions worth –30 Points.  As you can imagine this is quite deadly.  There has been a lot of talk on the Decipher Message Boards of late about how to counter said strategy.  This is the topic of this article.

Most of the talk I have seen about countering these decks has been along the lines of:  “What can I do to my current deck to make it immune?”  The answer has to be:  “Not Much.”  Like all abusive strategies there is no “Silver Bullet” to stop this strategy until the next expansion.  You can put some Amandas and Kevins in your deck to combat the 62nd rules and DRGS, but most players will not be able to stop the HOTE from going through unless they are playing an OS deck themselves.  So the way to counter this strategy now, before we get the “Silver Bullet,” is to avoid it.

Thus we look to the Borg.  The first and best way to counter HOTE/DRGS is to play a deck that is immune to bonus points, the Borg.  The Borg are totally immune to this deck type.  The HOTE and 62nd rule deal with bonus points, albeit negative bonus points, but bonus points nonetheless.

// Editor's note: actually HOTE just lowers the point value of missions, but since the
//  borg don't attempt missions anyway…

The DRGS are irrelevant to the Borg at space missions since no matter how many points that mission loses it still has a point box, the only requirement to target it with establish gateway.  If the Borg player gets hit with DRGS while scouting a homeworld they will usually lose a single drone, which they can then recycle.  Again this reduces the mission’s value, though it does not hurt the Borg since the only requirement to target it is the fact that it is a homeworld.  Finally if DRGS were to hit any of the Borg player’s planet missions it would again cause the Borg no ill effects, since the requirement for targeting the planet for assimilation is only that it’s point box shows at least 35 points.  According to the Glossary when a card states: “Point Box showing at least 35 points” it is referring to the printed value on the card, not the actually play value of the mission at that point in the game.  So by playing the Borg you can make yourself totally immune to this incredibly cheesy deck.